Precedent-setting presidents remembered

Mount Rushmore memorializes four presidents with “Republican” labels: Federalist George Washington, Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson, modern Republican Party Abraham Lincoln, and Republican Theodore Roosevelt, who formed his own Progressive Party.

George Washington, and many founding fathers, believed political parties would polarize citizens and paralyze government. Never an official Federalist, independent Washington supported Federalism’s devotion to liberty and profound conservative views. However, he warned against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars.

Thomas Jefferson was effectively a liberal, secular humanist, closer to today’s Democratic Party than the Republican Party, but adherent to neither. The 20th century Jefferson Republican Party, only active in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee, supports Libertarian small, limited government, states’ rights, neutral relations with European powers, and a cautious intervention in foreign matters.

When Abraham Lincoln first joined the GOP it was led by men considered radical, whose primary agenda was abolition of slavery. Lincoln guided the Party toward moderate progressivism, widely appealing to the majority of 1860 Americans. If Lincoln were alive today he probably wouldn’t recognize his Republican Party — he’d be appalled by all current legislative assaults on human and civil rights.

“Lincoln would equate all recent attempts to deny civil rights for gays, legislate what women could/could not do with their bodies, and the repudiation of equal pay for equal work as ill-disguised attempts to subjugate minorities and women. Any form of subjugation was intolerable to Lincoln. He deemed any limitation on civil and human rights and/or legislation subjecting any citizen to ‘second-class’ status just as loathsome then as it is today.” (Augustin Stucker) Theodore Roosevelt attempted to move the Republican Party toward Progressivism, campaigning on monopoly trust-busting and increased business regulation. Teddy coined the phrase “Square Deal,” emphasizing that average citizens would get a fair share under his policies.

Outdoorsman and naturalist, he promoted conservation and signed legislation establishing five national parks. Teddy signed The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and The Pure Food and Drug Act. He was the force behind completion of Panama Canal and won the Nobel Peace Prize by negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.

These four great presidents built our country not so much for their own re-election, financial gain, sense of self-importance/power but with an eye to the future. What happened to their goal?

America is a federal (central) constitutional republic — a form of government in which the country is considered a “public matter” not the private concern or property of rulers, where offices of state are directly or indirectly elected/appointed rather than inherited. Republicanism is distinguished from other forms of democracy as it asserts people have unalienable rights which cannot be voted away by a majority of voters. (Re-read that sentence.)

Following President Barack Obama’s re-election, a proposal was considered in Virginia’s Republican-led state legislature changing allocation of its 13 electoral votes. Obama won the popular vote in this crucial battleground state to claim all 13 electoral votes, even though GOP Mitt Romney won seven of the 11 congressional districts.

Under the proposed alternative system, electoral votes would be divvied up by congressional districts won, and Virginia’s two other electoral votes — one for each U.S. Senate seat — would go to the candidate winning the most congressional districts. Reince Priebus, chairman of Republican National Committee, deemed the idea “worth examining.”

Other GOP-controlled state legislatures reportedly contemplating changing the electoral college process — without constituents’ input — to win the presidency include Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. This “if you can’t beat ’em, cheat ’em” mentality is antithetical to our founding principles.

On a more optimistic note, bipartisan citizen groups are organizing to bring about a return to effective governing. “No Labels” is a movement of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, et al, dedicated to problem-solving politics. “We stand united behind a simple proposition: We want our government to stop fighting and start fixing.”

“Represent Us” is a bipartisan coalition, grassroots campaign advocating “The American Anti-Corruption Act” to transform election financing, end lobbyists’ influence, mandate political money disclosure. It’s a sweeping proposal to reshape the rules of American politics, and restore ordinary Americans as the most important stakeholders instead of major donors.”

This President’s Day, our Rushmore honorees might be ashamed, disheartened, even incensed by the corruption of their country’s representative government — a government they served so faithfully, so hopefully.

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